A device and process of this type are known from DE 198 58 310 B4.
The current apparatuses of entertainment electronics such as, e.g., television apparatuses, audio apparatuses, DVD apparatuses, satellite receivers, video recorders, set-top boxes, etc. are customarily operated by a remote control that usually communicates wirelessly with the corresponding apparatuses. All these multimedia apparatuses, which also include computers nowadays, are designated in the following as “apparatus”. All these apparatuses as well as increasingly also other devices present in households such as, e.g., garage-door controls, alarm systems, heating controls, household apparatuses and kitchen apparatuses as well as telecommunication devices such as telephone, fax, internet access are currently networked to an increasing degree and controlled to the extent possible by only one single remote control. Many of the cited apparatuses can be individually configured for different users and adapted to preferences of the particular user. A few known adaptations will be explained using the example of a television receiver:                A “child safety” can be provided that allows only selected television channels and/or allows a television reception only at predefined times;        television habits can be preprogrammed, for example, in that a certain user views certain transmissions on certain channels on certain days of the week at certain times;        a list of preferred television channels can be set up for each user that are preferably displayed as favorites in a selection menu;        the individual key assignment of the keys of the remote control can be changed according to user and apparatus;        safeties can be provided in interactive systems such as interactive television, home shopping, home banking, video on demand or the like, for example, limitations for orders of items or films, types of films (e.g., g-rated), etc.        
It is necessary for the above reasons to automatically adapt the remote control to the particular user and to configure and release individual access authorization.
To this end it has already been frequently suggested that the remote control be provided with an identification device that recognizes, automatically if possible, a person with access authorization. Thus, DE 198 58 310 B4 suggests providing a fingerprint reader in the remote control that detects biometric data of the user by sensors and activates an individual operating profile upon recognition of a person with authorized access.
Even other detection apparatuses for biometric data such as a voice recognition circuit, an iris scanning apparatus and a face recognition apparatus have already been suggested (cf. WO 02/17627 A2).
The fingerprint of a person is used especially frequently for identification such as described, e.g., in US 2001/007592 A1, US 2005/0149870 A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,758,257, 5,771,307, 5,920,642, 6,020,882, 6,130,726, 6,137,539, 6,914,517B2, 6,968,565B1, or WO 01/56,213 A1.
The following problems are present in all these remote controls:                A high degree of security should be insured, which means that an apparatus can not be operated by a foreign remote control and that a new user can not be created “in an unauthorized manner”;        the hardware cost of the remote control should be as low as possible;        the current consumption of the remote control should be as low as possible;        the communication between remote control and apparatus should be as “tap-proof” as possible, which is especially important because there are a plurality of programmable remote controls on the market that can record, store and reproduce signals transmitted by an original remote control.        
There are various suggestions for increasing security. Thus, US 2001/0007592 A1 suggests scanning a series of several fingerprints of different fingers.
EP 1 286 518 A2 suggests providing at least one key of the remote control with a fingerprint reader so a check of the authorized user is performed each time during the querying of certain functions such as, e.g., change of channel, confirmation key or the like.
In order to increase the access security the older, non-pre-published German Patent Application 10 2006 042 014 of the Applicant suggested providing, in addition to a reading device for biometric data, especially a fingerprint reader, another hardware device that identifies the remote control as such, which is realized in the concrete exemplary embodiment by a so-called SIM (“Subscriber Identity Module”) card. Thus, at least the new creation of a user profile or the changing of an existing user profile is only possible if the SIM card is inserted into the remote control.